3 As I live,” declares the Lord God, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. 4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. (Ezekiel 18)
Wow, sometimes God just blows my mind. Like a Mighty gust of wind, He will speak in His Word and all the world is silenced. I write of God’s love, mercy and grace more than any other topic in this blog. This is because I need so much of His mercy, grace and love; we all do. But today, I will write about God’s Sovereignty over our lives. I know most of us know the story of God’s love, but let’s gaze at its beauty one more time. You can never look your Beloved in the eye too often. I have never seen such a direct claim of ownership, by Our Precious God, as I saw in this verse. It just jumped off the page at me. Each one of us has a Soul, given to us by God, we all sense this soul inside ourselves. Some people call it a ‘conscience,’ others call it their ‘heart.’ As defined in Strong’s concordance, soul means: the inner being of man, the seat of emotions and passions, the activity of the mind, the will and the character, the man himself.
God claims our souls are His. He created us, He gave us our soul. But right along with that claim of ownership, is a sentence that should cause all of us to tremble in reverence in the presence of this Holy, Magnificent, yet merciful, God of ours. “The soul who sins will die.” God’s Holiness demands purity, perfection, innocence. This is something not one of us can give to Him on our own. But His love is beyond measure for the Souls of us, whom He has created.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3)
God, knowing the peril our souls were in because we have rebelled against Him, and knowing the we could not save ourselves, stepped down from His Heavenly Throne and took our place in the receiving of judgment.
Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love and mercy. He is the fulfillment of God’s desire for reconciliation and restoration. So this Beautiful God, who had every right to just squash us, provided the way for us to be redeemed and restored instead. What a picture of Love, like no other we have ever, or will ever see. Jesus says: 12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Jesus fulfilled God’s commission, His Mission of love toward His creation. So yes, all souls belong to God, and Yes, the soul who sins will die. But God made a better way.
“If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1)
Wow! Doesn’t God just blow your mind sometimes. His Love is Extravagant, Magnificent, Glorious to behold. Have a blessed Day!
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